How Often Do You Buy Lottery Tickets

[Scuba]

14 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Never purchased a lottery ticket
	3 (21%)
	Less than 1 ticket/year average my adult life
	6 (43%)
	A few times a year
	2 (14%)
	Around 1 ticket / week
	1 (7%)
	Multiple tickets / week
	2 (14%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[ZombieHorde]

1. I very rarely buy scratch-off lottery tickets to attatch to a present.

I never buy them for myself, but I think scratch-off lottery tickets are fun to give along with a gift.

I do this maybe once every two years. How should I vote?

[OriginalGeek]

2. I'd probably buy more

but I'm rarely in a store that sells them when the prize is high enough to interest me.

[Wounded Bear]

3. We have three game here in WA state....

State Lotto, PowerBall, and MegaMillions. I usually get one ticket each/week. Sometimes one or two more if the pots are really big. Never more than $5-10/week.

[bigwillq]

4. A few times a year (nt)

[siligut]

5. If I buy something at a convenience store, I might buy a ticket

Just a spur of the moment thing. I had a $15 winner once, but it was too old by the time I checked it

[maggiesfarmer]

6. I've always viewed this as a voluntary tax in which I chose not to participate.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. Few times a year. It's a cheap dream for a few days and no biggie when reality sets in.

[femmocrat]

8. We buy them at work occasionally.

We used to have a weekly pool, but no one wanted to be responsible for it anymore.

[kentauros]

9. My choice:

Not often enough to win!

[Xipe Totec]

10. I subscribe to Hugh Everet's many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics

In one of those worlds, you understand what this means.

In a different one, I actually won the lotto.

[lastlib]

11. I don't waste my money on 'em. I know it's a waste becuz I've already been hit by lightning

[maggiesfarmer]

12. Yes. In my more cynical moods I view the lottery as a tax on the mathematically challenged

[hobbit709]

13. So is any form of gambling.

Rule ONE: The house ALWAYS wins.

[CBGLuthier]

16. rule two, don't play against the house

rule three, if you are at a poker table and you can not spot the sucker, you is it.

[maggiesfarmer]

20. i call the lottery a tax because the revenues go to the state. not same for casino betting

[CBGLuthier]

15. any gambler will tell you

If the lottery is worth over 100 million it is a good bet to buy ONE ticket as you will never ever get such a return on any other kind of bet.

They will also tell you it is stupid to buy more than one as you can not really improve those odds significantly.

But yeah 2 dollars for a chance to win 100 million or more is well worth the chance. And yes, I do view it as a form of voluntary tax.

[KamaAina]

21. I, too, wait for the jackpots to go up

but not quite that high.

[ok_cpu]

25. That's kind of our rule too

One ticket when the jackpot is large enough that it's worth the buck just to spend the day imagining the win.

I've never understood buying multiple tickets (other than maybe kicking into a pool). Is 20 in 175 million really that much better than 1 in 175 million?

[In_The_Wind]

14. When some well meaning friend reminds me to.

[img][/img] Thanks

[Art_from_Ark]

17. I bought a dollar lottery ticket many years ago

Missouri lottery. I paid for it with a dollar bill that someone had written "Lucky Dollar: Buy a ticket with me and win the lottery" on it. Unfortunately, the ticket I bought was a loser. So I figured, if I can't win the lottery with a "lucky dollar", I can't win it, period.

[graywarrior]

18. Everytime I buy one, I forget to check the numbers after the win.

[Myrina]

19. Perverse logic:

I buy the week AFTER the 'big one' hits. I figure everyone's so greeded out on the super big numbers that fewer folks will buy for a $1M jackpot & my chances will be better.

I don't need the multi-millions anyway, $1M is more than enough for me, ya' know?

[maggiesfarmer]

22. I'm curious how you conclude your chances are better.

I believe your odds of predicting the numbers correctly remain the same regardless of how many people participate. I do note the probability of someone else winning and you having to split them has gone down in your case, but not the probability of you winning (unless we're discussing a different lottery model than i'm familiar with).

[Myrina]

23. I just figure,

... if fewer people are buying tickets, the likelihood of my ticket being a weiner are higher.
I don't pick the numbers, I buy a 'machine generated' ticket.
Smaller pool, better odds ... as it were.

But I failed algebra & dropped out of geometry in week 2, so obviously math and things math-related have never been my strong point.

[Separation]

26. The chances of you winning are not lowered by the amount of tickets bought

2 tickets or two million tickets can be sold and your chances of winning the lotto are still the same.

[Myrina]

27. Gee well ok thanks for crushing the fantasy

[Separation]

28. Sorry

I tell you what, I played lotto tonight. If I win the Jackpot I will give you 1 million. Consider this a binding contract. Ill be back at 11pm EST to let you know if we are millionaires or not.

After edit: Ooops thought it was Wednesday, gonna have to wait till next Powerball drawing this Saturday night.

[Xithras]

24. I'll occasionally chip into a pool.

I've never bought a scratcher, and can't remember ever buying a lotto ticket on my own.

[Jamaal510]

29. Brian on Family Guy said it best: lottery tickets are a tax on poor people.

I don't mess with the lottery. Next to trickle-down economics, I think the lotto is among the biggest scams in American history. You best believe--the people who are in charge of running it DON'T want people to win. That's why they make it near-impossible to do so, but still offer the massive cash prize to keep people paying for tickets. I already have enough bad habits when it comes to my spending.